Demonstration of the frequency and correlation behavior of a forward scatter baseline crossing event

Abstract

With the ever-increasing number of satellites orbiting the Earth for the purposes of communication and research, a significant emphasis is placed on Space Domain Awareness (SDA). The orbital environment contains millions of bodies that can endanger the operation and existence of satellites. As a result, companies and governments around the world have built several massive radar arrays tasked with detecting, tracking, and cataloguing tens of thousands of Resident Space Objects (RSOs). A cost-, size-, and spectrum-effective method to achieve space debris tracking is to use passive forward scatter radar. In this radar configuration, target baseline crossing events produce special phenomena in the time- and frequency- domains which may be used for unique target identification. Experimental demonstrations of these effects are explored in this paper.